The ability to control one or more functions in a building (e.g., lighting, heating, air conditioning, audio, security systems, etc.) is known as building automation. Building automation may be used, for example, to automatically operate various lighting schemes in a house. Of course building automation may be used to control any of a wide variety of other functions, more or less elaborate than controlling lighting.
Low-end building automation systems are typically provided with switches, dials and knobs for controlling specific automation devices in a prescribed manner and cannot be readily customized or changed for individual users. More sophisticated building automation systems may use computer controls. These computer controls may be daunting to the user and therefore the user fails to realize the full potential of the building automation system.